[ 74 I 



a gradual contradion and diminution, both in number and efE- 

 ciency ; and it is to be feared, the day is not far difant, which 

 fhall fee it abforbed, into the lower clafles of the peojile. Wild 

 and unbridled luxury, boundlefs expence ; the enormous profits of 

 trade ; the fudden and unexpeded aggrandizement, or opulence of 

 mean individuals, in confequence, of this, and other caufes ; the 

 amazing influx of Afiatic wealth, and pomp, and foftnefs ; the 

 preffure of taxes, great beyond all former example, and even be- 

 yond the fuppofed capabilities of finance ; the exorbitant price of 

 all the necefTaries, not to fpeak of the comforts of life ; — thefe 

 combining caufes are bearing Britain forward, with rapidity, hour- 

 ly accelerated, to the ftate I mention. — Pafs a few years, and 

 haply the yeomanry and gentry may difappear ; and leave only the 

 crown, the court, an ariftocracy, partly of nobility, partly of mer- 

 chandize ; and a wretched, ignorant, laborious peafantry. — The 

 one clafs, too great, too bufy, or too voluptuous, to frequent 

 theatres, or wafte their time on books of amufement ; the other 

 clafs, too poor and wretched, to purchafe, or too grofs and un- 

 couth, to reliih intelledual pleafures. I need not fay, how unfa- 

 vourable fuch a change in fociety, or even the approach to fuch a 

 change muft prove, to elegant amufement, polite letters, rational 

 converfation, and an extended knowledge of human nature. 



Thus much for the caufes more particularly afFeding the audi- 

 ence, and the readers. There are certain difficulties, which fur- 

 round 



